Capital Restaurants Born of Global Politics

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Ten years ago Gabriel Aubouin, the private chef for the French Ambassador in Washington, decided to open a restaurant. ''A backer offered me $100,000,'' Mr. Aubouin, 43 years old, said. ''That was the opportunity I was waiting for.''

Today Mr. Aubouin and his partner, the former maitre d'hotel at the French Embassy, Raymond Campet, own La Brasserie, a popular French bistro on Capitol Hill. ''I wanted to stay here because the opportunity to open a restaurant was greater and more exciting than in France,'' Mr. Aubouin said. Mr. Aubouin's tale reflects a peculiar Washington tradition of embassy workers who leave their jobs to open restaurants. In the last few years, Alain Roussel, the chef at the French Embassy, opened La Ferme in Chevy Chase, Md., and Pierre Chauvet, chef at the Dutch Embassy, opened La Fourchette in Adams-Morgan, a Washington neighborhood with many ethnic restaurants.

Sometimes new restaurants open out of political necessity rather than economic opportunity. After Governments changed in Iran and Ethiopia, for example, Iranian and Ethiopian restaurants opened around Washington, serving a ready market of political refugees who missed their families and their food. Restaurant watchers are now betting on when Panamanian and Eastern European restaurants will begin opening.

David Carliner, a Washington immigration lawyer, said people who seek asylum in the United States are permitted to work and to open their own businesses. Many are former embassy officials, and restaurants offer an excellent outlet for their diplomatic skills.

Eight Ethiopian restaurants opened in Washington in the 1980's. One of the oldest, the Red Sea, opened eight years ago in Adams-Morgan. ''We were students; one worked at the embassy,'' one of the three owners, Ghennet Gabre Medhin, said. ''We didn't want to go back to Ethiopia. The first year it was the three partners who did all the cooking. Now we are one step up. We have a cook.'' Most of the restaurants open outside the high-rent district of downtown Washington. Nguyen Van Thoi, who left Vietnam by boat in 1979, owns two Vietnamese restaurants in northern Virginia, including My An 2, a tiny restaurant in a shopping center in Falls Church that has several Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants. In Vietnam, Mr. Van Thoi was an administrator for the Agency for International Development. ''When I came here I studied aviation and then worked in a gas station,'' he said. ''If you are not a mechanic or technician, which I am not, a gas station is a terrible job. I worked hard and didn't make any money.''

Like Greek, Chinese and Jewish immigrants before him, Mr. Van Thoi employs members of his family. ''Your family can save you lots,'' he said. ''There is less waste and no stealing.''

''I know public relations and how to greet the people,'' he went on. ''I am one of the people most successful, but don't kid yourself, most of these restaurants fail.''

Not all the people fleeing political regimes arrive in the United States penniless. Across the street from the Red Sea is Meskerem, the fanciest of the Ethiopian restaurants, with brightly painted tiles decorated with Ethiopian motifs. ''My husband and I left Ethiopia and made some money in Saudi Arabia,'' Nafisa Said, 33, who runs the restaurant, said. ''When we came here we thought there was a market for Ethiopian food.''

When the Shah of Iran fell in 1979, Fatola Samiy was the educational counselor at the Iranian Embassy. He and his wife, Simin, had been collecting furniture to take back to their home in Teheran. With no possibility of returning to Iran, Mrs. Samiy went to work cooking. The antiques found a new home at the Caspian Tea Room, a restaurant the Samiys opened in a shopping center in the Spring Valley section of Washington, a residential area.

Like owners of many other ethnic restaurants, the Samiys learned that it was wise to have a menu with ethnic and American dishes. ''There are not many Iranians who live in this neighborhood,'' Mrs. Samiy said. ''We have to adjust our menu for our American and Iranian customers.''

If politics governs restaurant trends, what is next in the nation's capital? ''Washington will continue to be a magnet for emigres,'' said Joel Denker, author of ''Capitol Flavors,'' a portrait of Washington's ethnic restaurants. ''I see Somali cafes, Haitian Creole eateries, and even more Pakistani kebab shops.''

A version of this article appears in print on January 24, 1990, on Page C00004 of the National edition with the headline: Capital Restaurants Born of Global Politics. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe